Death
by RikaDivani
Summary: Living Ghosts are Fifty percent more likely to become Dead Ghosts. All Ghosts have obsessions, though Living Ghosts have them to a lesser degree than Dead Ghosts. My parents hunt them when they break the law, for bounties. I've known my whole life that Ghosts are the scum of the human world, until now I was certain. Danny Phantom x OC AU


Death

"I-I..."

"So just give me your allowance, and I'll be able to get a pedicure for the foot you just tramped all over."

As usual Paulina is trying to kowtow some thoughtless girl. "I'm sorry, I-" She tries to edge away from Paulina, and I step in her way.

"Fork it over unless you wanna hop out of here with my boot up your ass." I stare deeply into her eyes with my own. She puts a hand to her throat as if she's choking on my gaze and starts to cry a little in fear, digging in her pockets and pulling out a small folded wad of bills that she hands to Paulina. I move out of the way and she takes the cue to get lost.

"Geez, freshmen just think they can do whatever they want." Paulina flips her perfectly kinked hair and glares after the small girl.

"You taught her a valuable lesson to watch where she's going, she'll be more careful now, Paulina." Star is looking at Paulina with her namesake in her eyes. All the girls look up to Paulina, but Star is a Living Ghost, and takes it up a notch to obsession. Her other obsessions take a back seat but all pertain to Paulina in some way.

"Yeah, but I hate that every year we overlook a whole grouping of them and they just do what they want." An unnamed girl that I haven't bothered to know at all is whining, and I turn to go, Paulina and Star trailing after me. Paulina never walks up front, and I'm the one in charge of getting us all to classes on time. You don't even want to know what Paulina had to do with the principal to get all three of us in the same classes.

I can feel the energy transference at all times between Star and Paulina. Star is young, and doesn't need living energy to be younger, and she's a living ghost and could simply manifest herself a little more beautiful. But Paulina is human. She was already beautiful, but Star puts everything she can gather into Paulina and she became flawlessly skinned and bright eyed. "So, Death." Paulina is speaking in a lower register and this is Star's cue to leave. She breaks off from the group as I turn and lean against the wall of lockers, her body curving to hide my face from bystanders so no one could tell what we were saying. "Danny Phantom is gonna ask me to the dance, everybody's talking about it. I just need you to make sure no other girls go after him." She puts a hand on her hip, "Of course why would he go after anyone else when he could have me? But just in case anyone TRIES to step on my territory... You take care of them." I nod and we start walking again, me always in front in case I needed to protect her from anything. I was only the slightest bit taller than Paulina, but I was tougher, stronger, and she needed me. That's why I run this school, at Paulina's behest, because she needs someone to be her enforcer and lucky me, I was picked.

I sit next to Paulina in class of course, just in case she needs something from me, or wants to chat about something. The teachers, all but Mr. Lancer, are scared of me and won't mess with Paulina as a consequence. In Junior high, her last year, Paulina was slutting around with the teachers to get good grades, after we got together in high school, she didn't need to anymore. And when she tried with Mr. Lancer, he kicked her out of his classroom and gave her detention. I allowed it, because Paulina needed at least a little brain activity and I told her so, otherwise her mind might turn to mush. She didn't speak to me for a week, always gesturing if she wanted me to handle something cause she was pissed off.

Once again Paulina is staring at the back of Daniel Phantom's head and sighing. Living ghosts were always a human girl's dream. At least when your parents aren't ghost hunters like mine. They do it for the bounties and because they hate ghosts, as they are a menace to society. Mostly they go after Dead ghosts, but living ghosts are also sometimes a problem, and harder to take down. Danny seems to sense her eyes and turns to look over his shoulder at her, his spiky hair is draped over his forehead to just barely brush the edge of his left eye and end at his chin. The rest of his hair was short, cut close to his head. He shot her a smile that was more of a smirk and she smirked back in her best, 'I want you' way. He turned back around and I glared at him. If Paulina didn't like him, I wouldn't tolerate his bravery. Living or dead, Ghosts are just all around bad news.

When we get out of class, as always, Paulina falls into step with the Jocks and I lead the way to the cafeteria. She's trying to be nonchalant with him as she speaks, but her voice's tone and flow is basically- 'I want you, and If you want me, I'll do you in this hallway.' That's how Paulina talks when she wants something from someone or in this case I guess, just wants someone. He's always floating at least three inches off the ground, he floats everywhere it irritates me. At one point I hear a commotion behind me and turn to see a girl wriggling through the crowd, our resident nonconformist and animal rights nut. That goddamn hippie girl Sunshine. And she's holding a clean balloon filled with something red. It only takes me a moment to realize she's after Paulina. She's wearing her new fox fur sleeveless hoodie and boots with leather pants. I know she'll be ticked off because when I push her out of the way, He's asking her, "-Do you wanna go-"

I push, Paulina shrieks as she falls into him, and knocks them both over and I'm suddenly being splattered with red paint and turning so none of it will get on Paulina. My clothes would look fine with red paint splatters, I already wore black with paint splatters anyway. Paulinas' expensive outfit would have been ruined.

"Oh my god!" Everyone is pushing themselves against the walls of the hallway, even the few teachers that were out were ducking into their classrooms to avoid what might happen next.

Sunshine looks unafraid. She must have known I was going to beat her down for doing it to Paulina anyway, and came to her own peace with it.

"Sunshine, what the hell was that?" HE floats past me, Paulina reaching after him,

"You don't have to do that, Death will take care of HER." He looks back at my face, apathetic, down at my hands, clenched into fists.

"We don't need to beat her up." He turns and floats over to her. "Sunshine, I'm going to talk to the principal. You've been too disruptive, I think you need to be expelled." Her face went white and I realize it's probably the only thing that could scare her. I beat her up once a week at least for her stupid antics, she's used to it.

"I think Paulina will help with that." I give her a glance and she smiles brightly,

"Yes of course, I'll get everyone in school to sign a petition and everything!" Danny looked back at her. His eyes held a different light to them than before. More... Uninterested. Oh no.

"Paulina, he's losing interest." I mutter to her. She glances at him as he turns and glides back, his eyes looking through her rather than AT her. She panics.

"That was brave of you Danny! I was always afraid Sunshine was going to do something awful like that to me, so I told Death to protect me. Sometimes she gets carried away, but most of the time she just scares people. So you didn't have to do that." Paulina can blame things on me all she wants, nobody ever does anything to punish me for anything.

He lands on his feet, walking, he doesn't usually do that. "Yeah, sure." He brushes past her, his eyes meeting mine and glowing with a sudden reprimand. Something I could understand. It was a look I gave when Paulina wanted me to show someone disapproval. It meant he thinks I'd done something wrong. Whatever, like I care what he thinks of me. I'm here to make him like Paulina.

"Nice one Phantom, did you see her face go white?" Dash is laughing, the others following suit. Danny stands at their average height with broad shoulders, as he plays soccer and football. Living ghosts apparently need less sleep than the rest of us, dead ghosts don't need any at all. He shrugs and smirks at them, somehow always winning them over with the exact right response.

"What happened, he was about to ask me out, and then... Poof!" Her bottom lip was slightly wobbling and I lifted my hands to survey the damage to my skin and clothing.

"I need to shower in the locker rooms, Paulina come with me." I turn and walk away, and she follows, sniffling and wondering what she'd done wrong out loud. "You're the most beautiful girl in school Paulina, there's no reason he shouldn't like you. He's playing a game, what game I don't know." I start to undress in the dressing room.

"You think maybe he's just playing hard to get? I mean, I could ask him, but then I might look desperate!" She's in her head-game mode now, so she won't cry. I step under a shower head and turn on the water, washing the red paint from my hair and face. "I just wish I could snap my fingers like with the other guys sometimes." She sighs and leans against the wall opposite me.

"Yes, but then you wouldn't like him as much."

"True." She giggles, "Did you see how badly he scared her?"

"Yes, it seems he is a diplomat."

"That's exactly it!" She excitedly exclaims. "I bet he'll become a representative on the Ghost council one day!"

"Is there any left?" I turn to her and she surveys my face and body.

"I don't think so. You might still have it in your hair, but it's wet and black so I can't tell. Just be glad that bitch didn't make it smell bad too."

When we get back to the cafeteria, everyone is chattering animatedly and only pause for a moment when they notice us. Paulina does her strutting walk down to the main table and sits next to Star. Star always gets her lunch for her. I have to go over and grab my own and am surprised when I turn and Phantom is standing there, staring at me. "Why do you do all this?" He gestures at me and then at the main table. "For Paulina?"

"Paulina is my friend, friends do things for each other." As if a ghost would understand.

"What does Paulina do for you?" He crosses his arms and I roll my eyes. He knows nothing about me. Or my friends.

"I don't have to justify or explain myself to you. Paulina is a good friend. And if you don't ask her to the dance, she's going to black list you." His eyes are very expressive, I realize, as they show surprise with only a slight deviation in their wideness.

"Black list me? What does that even mean? And she can find another guy to ask her."

"She doesn't WANT another guy to ask her." I'm starting to get annoyed. Why couldn't he just fall in line and do what he was supposed to?

"Well, too bad, cause I'm not going to. She's a bitch AND a coward." He turns and walks back to the main table, the boy's half, as I stand there, glaring with my lip curling in a growl. My fists were clenched around my tray and I walked to the girls' half, sitting and stuffing a spoonful of applesauce in my mouth.

"What did he say?" Paulina looked at me with her blue-green eyes and smiled, she was suspicious of my anger and the fact that he'd spoken to me at all. Most of the boys just treat me like a decoration.

"Nothing, just some stupid stuff about not picking fights." Which is exactly the kind of thing he WOULD say.

"Oh, he's so responsible." She cooed and stared at him down the table.

Some kid splashes a girl I don't the name of at our table with his coffee and she throws a bitch fit. Paulina looks to me to intervene. "If she's dumb enough to not watch where she's going or where she's flailing her damn arms, she deserves to get drenched with coffee." Everyone around me starts to laugh and sneer at her. She runs away crying and I sigh. Teenage girls are so stupid sometimes.

When school ends, I'm so relieved I could snap something. I always get a ride home with Star and Paulina, and lie out in the backseat. I'm glaring with my arms crossed over my chest. "You've been in a bad mood since Danny gave you a lecture. I'm glad you didn't pound his face in, but maybe you should have said something to him if you were so mad?" Paulina is smirking to herself, I can see her reflection in the windshield.

"Nothing I said would have changed his mind." Which is what really irritates me. Paulina wasn't going to get asked by the guy she wanted, and she'd be unhappy, which means a lot more work for me because Paulina likes to spread the misery to the rest of the school.

I get dropped off and walk down the road to my house. There was an ecto fence that I had to punch in a code for so I could open it. It wouldn't hurt me or anything, but it was locked down like a frickin' fortress. It kept out anybody trying to phase through it, and was locked against humans, so... I step inside and am almost blinded by a flash, like always. Now I just open the door with my eyes closed. "Death, are you home?" Yes, that was actually my name. Bounty hunter parents that take pride in it usually do that kind of thing.

"Yeah, mom." I walk into the kitchen where she's skinning something. Usually mom hunted Deer around the woods behind our house for dinner but this looked like rabbit.

"Your father wants to tell you something. He's in the supply shed." Ugh. Dad only ever wanted to talk to me when it had to do with making my routines for training harder or longer. Or when he thought I was slacking off on it.

I go out the back with a granola bar, it was my after school snack, I was always ravenous after school. I chomp on it as I open the door and move out of the way of the ecto booby trap that would smack a ghost in the face with flesh eating acid made from ectoplasm that would be easily phased through but if it hit, would be excruciatingly painful for a long time. I step into the supply shed and eye my father, who's packing a bag for their weekend hunt. Their bounty was relatively easy this week and I wonder why, they love a challenge. Especially when they can bring in somebody worth a lot of money, they always buy something for ghost hunting in the future or put more security on the house, then pay the bills. This hunt wouldn't have much more than the bill money. "Dad? You wanted me?"

"Your eighteenth birthday is tomorrow. You'd be a senior in high school right now if you hadn't been born in the wrong month, or whatever, so you're becoming an adult." Ah, the birthday gift discussion. Dad always said he'd get me something I could use forever. Probably a ghost blade or something. "You've been trainin' real hard. I decided that you're ready to go on a hunt with us." I almost dropped my granola. "It's an easy one, and if you prove yourself, I'll start lettin' you go on your own, maybe with me or momma if it's dangerous, but you've grown into a strong hunter, and I'm proud of your progress." I grip the bar in my hand and it starts to crumble.

"I... I get to go on a hunt?" He steps around me and picks up a long sheath for an ecto blade.

"I had this made for you. It's a Japanese Tanto Ecto Blade." He unSheathd it, and my nails dug into my palm, making me realize I'd crushed the bar. I shake out my hand, it was granola, no big deal. The blade was long, flat, and two edged with no point at the end. Dad said, 'When dealing with ghosts, Never stab, always slice.'

"What's its' name?" Japanese swords and blades always had names.

"'The Fang of Death.' Fitting, don't ya think?" It had beautiful designs along the middle of the blade. A grim reaper peered out from a black robe, he was missing a fang, one of them glinting as if with poison. "You'll have to take care of it, I got ya all you'd need." He hands me a leather bag like where he keeps his own blade maintenance equipment. I sheath the Blade, shove it through my belt like I've seen my father and mother both do, and take the bag. "You only get that blade tomorrow, it's how all hunters start." I nod, I'd expected that. "You can buy more later, with your share of this hunt, or you can wait till you get more from your solo hunts, but basically- You're an adult now."

I wake early in the morning to practice with my new blade, Slashing and looping and flipping, making sure to keep a firm grip on it at all times. It has a loop so I can attach it to my arm, 'It's better to break your arm, than lose your weapon when you might really need it.' Dad was always of the mind that life or death meant that bones breaking and joints twisting the wrong way was just a given.

I dress in a dark green jumpsuit that matches my eyes, pulling a hood over my black hair and slipping on a pair of goggles that would keep hair and sweat out of my eyes and keep any ecto beams from blinding me. The were tinged a dark green, my belt and boots brown and heavy duty. You leave your cleaning equipment at home, when you're on a hunt, you have to focus ALL your attention. So I put the bag over the post on my headboard and put my new blade through a loop in my belt that'll hold the sheath and still allow me to draw the blade easily. I tighten it up and pack the bag that my parents let me do myself. I've seen them do it enough to know that only what you'll desperately need goes in.

Water bottle, two of those.

Granola bars, Six of those.

Flashlight, two, with extra batteries.

Two way radio that can be used in case of separation.

Flares, four of those.

Match boxes, two of those.

And finally, a vial of the flesh eating ectoplasm that will cause horrible pain. They always take some, just in case, but discourage me from ever using it on a hunt unless absolutely necessary. It's illegal and has an effect on how much money and respect you get.

I walk out into the front room where my parents are still preparing, I hadn't heard them get up. "Ready?" My father flung his pack on and I nodded, his hand landing on my shoulder. "Don't pull the goggles over your eyes until we get near the ghosts, you need to be able to see so you don't make a lot of noise."

"I know." He nods and walks out the door, my mother following behind. She wasn't the affectionate sort, but she did reach out to pat my shoulder as we got into the truck, and it was enough for me to feel proud and brave.

The feeling stayed, as we stalked the abandoned farm house where the ghosts were haunting. They had been here for a few days, if they weren't about to leave, they had left already, but we were hoping they were here. We slowly opened the barn doors, my mother and I, while my father rushed in soundlessly and searched the barn. They both looked at each other when he came out and he shook his head. I caught sight of a silo in my peripheral vision and make a gesture to get their attention and motion toward it. They follow after me as I step toward it and stand to the side of the hatch. It didn't open soundlessly, so we'd have to be fast. I nodded to my father, his hand rested on the hatch handle and suddenly it was flung open, sending him rocketing back and tumbling end over end down the small hill. My mother yelled as she threw a flash bomb, my eyes instinctively closing.

When I opened them just a few seconds later and the flash was fading, I pull my goggles on and switch to heat vision. Only my parents showed up. "They're Dead Ghosts." I mutter and hit the night vision goggles. If they go invisible, we won't be able to track them at all. I hope these ghosts haven't learned that little trick. But it's usually the first trick any of them learns. Dead ghosts are so much more obsessive and powerful than Living ghosts.

I step up behind one of them as they shoot beams at my mother and she blocks with her wrist shield. It expands to become an ecto deflector. I unSheath my blade and swing it across his back, slicing him twice before he stumbled to the ground and tried to get up and run. He screamed when I slashed again, he might be Dead but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. He hadn't experienced the Final Death yet, which meant in some ways he was still subject to the laws of the human world. When you get slashed, it hurts, when your back hurts because it's been sliced open that much, it means you can barely move. My blade couldn't give him the Final Death, but it could keep him down for a whole day with those injuries. My mother pulled out a containment box unit and pointed it at him. She threw it and it formed around him, locking him inside, getting smaller and smaller until it was only a bit bigger than when it had been thrown. I pick it up in one hand and my mother runs off to help my father who's been chased into the barn. You always secure the captured ghosts first, so I run to our truck and put it in our safe in the back. When I breathe, something blue and wispy curls from my mouth. Mom and Dad told me that ghosts made you cold, but blue mist was from a ghost who sensed other ghosts. Which meant-

I turned and slashed, certain there was one behind me, but finding nothing. It happened again, my breath turning to blue mist and twisting about in front of me.

"My my." I turn and hold my blade aloft. The ghost woman standing there is definitely dead, her skin so pale it's slightly blue, her hair bright white, her eyes glowing green. "Turning on your own kind. Despicable." I roll my eyes,

"You aren't human anymore, if you ever were."

She seems surprised. "Human?"

"My kind." I step forward, hefting my blade.

She laughs, "Oh child. An Unknowing Living Ghost, how delicious." I slash and she jumps back, manifesting her own blade. I swallow hard, you never got into face to face confrontations with ghosts if you could help it, not alone. You never know what level they were at or what skills they might have. "You didn't just notice your ghost sense, and that right now, you're emitting a fear aura?"

I glare at her, "You aren't going to confuse me by talking nonsense."

"Alright then, I suppose I'll have to force you to see, because this is bound to devastate you, and I can't wait to see the look on your face." She grins, he eyes suddenly burning red. Which meant that either her obsession was fighting, or destroying. Either way I'm probably screwed without my parents around to help me.

She lunges at me and I block with my Fang, falling back and flipping to land back on my feet. "Ahhh, so capable and strong, and only using human abilities... But perhaps you've noticed that you're more graceful than other humans?" I step around as she circles me, and I notice we're getting closer to the woods. "Perhaps you've noticed that you're stronger, faster, that you heal more readily? Even if you don't draw on the power-"

"My mother and father both have pure human blood. So this is pointless." I jump, slash.

She dodges almost too easily. This could get very bad very fast. "Watch my face, you know how Ghost women are about being beautiful." She chuckles almost warmly. "How do you explain your ghost sense just now, sweetness?"

I think and mark off the possibilites. 'Posession, no... I wouldn't remember the time while I was under with such clarity.' I step back and back as she steps forward and sense a tree at my back, stepping around it before I smacked into it. Spatial awareness... I had never questioned that until now. 'Hallucination due to exposure to ectoplasm? No. None touched me. And my suit nullifies those effects.' "You can't, can you?"

"Shut it, Corpse Bride, I'm not biting at your bait."

"That's too bad, most unknowing ghosts could be so powerful if they just... Let it flow!" She lashes out with a beam that I roll out of the way of.

She's suddenly there in front of me, forming a ball of ecto energy that she touches to my abdomen, "Maybe I'll just have to _beat_ it out of you." Suddenly I'm being thrown _through_ trees. They break, my back gets cut with various splinters and I land with a scream. She floats over to me, landing lightly, ghosts never seemed to be able to fly that long, unless they were really powerful. I get a flash of the Phantom boy at school, floating everywhere all day. Maybe they just didn't like it.

She leans over me, a manic smile stretching her mouth and widening her eyes. "Such divine screaming." Her eyes are flashing red. Oh god, she was the one we were here for, they didn't know which of the men were the serial killer, but the victims were always killed in a human way, so they assumed the ghost who was actually doing it was weak. But her obsession is murder with her own two hands. You can see how she enjoys it. "Do you know I killed a little girl about your age when I was living? About ten years ago, before they sentenced me to death." She laughs in that warm chuckling way, and shivers go up my back. It doesn't fit the moment at all and it freaks me out even more. She steps closer and I try to sit up, but my back pulls and tears with the splintered wood stuck in it and I fall back onto my elbows, panting and unable to speak. I would scream for my parents but they're probably too far to hear any noise I'd let out when I can't take in proper air. "Oh she was so... beautiful." Her eyes turned a bright crimson and began to glow, "In her last moment, her eyes became glassy like a doll, her blood painted her hair black, and her naked body was so pale and glowed in the moonlight." The victims were always raped first. It must have been why so many male ghosts flocked to her, some of them are obsessed with rape, sex, anything they can do to experience living emotion or action, or hurt the living. They can't reproduce as Dead ghosts, and can't experience desire, but the rush they get from fulfilling their obsession was probably the same level, if not the same kind. "I can't wait to find a red haired girl to kill. I'm going to use a red ribbon, and wrap it around her throat, her wrists, her body and legs, and I'm going to pull until it slices into her flesh and releases the ruby liquid inside..." She shudders, "Oh... It will be rapturous."

"You're not getting away, my parents..." I grimace and pant a little, "They're skilled hunters."

"Stupid child, sweet, beautiful, stupid child. I am a Powered Dead Ghost." My eyes widen, "I can sense them, they've captured the rest of the ghost minions I had and are now trying to find you." Ghost minions? They had no minds of their own, which would mean, she would have to be at least a level Five, if not Ten at most.

"We're all going to die. Because of misinformation." My father had told me this kind of thing could happen.

"That's right, and I'll create more minions from your energy at death. Especially yours, oh living Ghosts are just full of-"

"I'm not a Living Ghost!"

She grins with pointed teeth. "Oh but sweet stupid child, you _are_."

She steps toward me.

My heart begins to pound, every beat like a hammer to my ribs.

She manifests a butcher knife, and I grip my Fang in my hand, knowing it will be useless.

She lifts it high as she floats up and rockets down toward me, her knife pointed toward my throat.

My throat tingles as I open my mouth to scream.

Instead I let out a ghostly wail.

It's a green distortion in the air, knocking her back and into a tree, then through it, and sending every tree in front of me flying and breaking apart, until there's a clearing at least a mile long in front of me and she crawls out from under the trees, intangible and losing her grasp on her power at the last moment to fall over and go limp in her ghostly body. I roll myself over onto my front, my throat scratching, my body weaker than before. I fall unconscious to the sound of my mother crying out that it can't be true, and my father cursing God.

The feeling of tight muscles and wrapping on my body are almost soothing when I wake up. I get the vaguest sense of, 'Oh I must have passed out, got injured. Training sucks.' And then memories start to drift in of the day before, my first memory of Paulina's face when Sunshine was threatened with expulsion by the Phantom boy. An image of ghostly blue breathe in the dark of the night, a feminine chuckle that made my stomach flip and my heart clench in fear. And then a scream that wasn't a scream. I gasp awake and sit up, or at least I try to. I've been strapped to a metal board and can't move my upper body or legs. My lower arms are free but with my upper arms strapped the way they are, it's impossible to get a full range of motion. "Mom? Dad!" I hear running footsteps and my father is bursting into the room with my Fang in his hand.

"Death." My mother steps in after him, her face pinched in an awful way that I know is disgust.

"What's going on?"

"Doctor Salvatore is looking at you, he's going to see what he can do to get rid of that... Blood in you." My father looks more disgusted than I've ever seen in my life. And I realize they're giving me to the doctor that tortures ghosts in the name of science and finding 'a cure for ghost genes.' No! It'll be like torture!

"You can't escape, those straps are ecto deflecting, you can't break them with a wail. It's the only power you showed, and I doubt you'll be able to do it again anyway." My mother walks over and smacks me across the cheek. "I didn't create this ghost scum, this is not my daughter!" She bursts into tears, "Blade, is this my fault!? Is my blood dirty!?"

"The doctor is checking our genes now. We'll find out soon which of us has unclean blood. You sit there, and you take whatever you need to be able to be human again. If you want to die, feel free." He unSheaths my Fang. "I'll cut your throat myself."

My whole body is beginning to vibrate as he steps forward and puts the blade against my tender flesh. I suddenly fall and land rolling on the floor, leaping to my feet. I don't know what just happened but I'm not dying here!

I headbutt my father in the stomach while he's shocked and distracted, grasping my Sheath and Fang from him and taking off through the door. My mother starts screaming and shoots an ecto ray gun at me.

I'm around a corner and ducking into a dark room before she can hit me. She goes running past and down the hall, so I flick on the light. It's an unused room, with a window high up. I'm not wearing any of my gear, my stomach exposed to the air, with only the barest wrapping between my legs and around my chest so I don't offend them. My father always hated ghosts, and ghosts that tried to beguile him with their bodies made him fly into a rage. Ghosts weren't supposed to be alluring and beautiful. They were dead. But that's exactly why they were. This was how the other ghosts that were experimented on looked like. Until now, I had been reassured by the fact that they looked inhuman, clothing was for people, my parents told me, and ghosts didn't deserve any because they were dead and didn't need any. The wrapping was to de-humanize them more than anything...

I'm not human.

My parents hate me.

They want me dead.

I realize I'm floating when my head bumps the ceiling. Ghosts don't normally manifest this many powers at once! If I'm a ghost, I'd start out weak, unable to do anything but sense other ghosts. I'm eighteen I couldn't just be manifesting late! Unknowing Ghost... I had repressed them until now. But even still, only powered ghosts were able to-

My hair is blonde... When did that happen!?

I push toward the window and Sheath my Fang, breaking the painted shut window and brushing the glass away from the edges so I could float through and land on the ground. But instead of going down, I just went further and further up and up and up. I was freaking out, waving my arms, flipping end over end, my hair whipping my face and suddenly my stomach fell and I was dropping like a stone. I screamed, my stomach hooked and lifting me up again, then dropping me once more. I was hurtling toward the city and someone somewhere would probably have me crashing into their living room.

I was dropping and lifting so much and so fast that I felt sick and started hyperventilating. I screamed again when I started to drop and my body vibrated as I flew through a building and a billboard loomed before me. I smacked my legs into it and grunted as I was dropped again. "HELP!" I suddenly stopped falling, and didn't hit concrete. I blink open my eyes and am confronted with snowy hair and glowing ghostly green eyes.

"Powers just activate? Yeah I remember that." He floated toward the ground, stepping lightly a few times before coming to a stop and putting me down. "No offense, but... Maybe you should never take your clothes off while your powers are doing this?" He eyed my wrapped body and I touched my bound chest, ugh it hurts. They bound it so tightly that I barely seemed to have a chest at all, and I'm a D-cup, so you can imagine how painful it was.

"I... I didn't do this... I was..." My eyes fill with tears, "Phantom, my parents want me dead."

"... We know each other?"

I blink and wipe my cheeks, hiccuping. "It's me, Phantom, Death Jagger."

His expression would have been priceless on any other day, I would have smirked at his slightly wide eyes and parted lips. It's the most expression he ever seems to show in school. "Death? Paulina's Death?" Is that what people call me? I flush lightly.

"We just talked yesterday."

"...no. We talked two days ago." I look up at him with wide eyes, "You must have been unconscious, right? What happened?"

"I... I... I turned eighteen... And my parents took me on a hunt for my birthday." I look down at my feet and grip my Fangs' Sheath in my hands, squeezing and slightly twisting.

"Happy Birthday."

I jerk my head up. "What?"

"Happy Birthday." He lifts an eyebrow and I hunch my shoulders.

"It wasn't much of one. I got knocked into a bunch of trees, almost got killed by a serial killer ghost, and woke up strapped to a metal table-"

"You're injured? Where?" He grasped my arms and turned me this way and that, surveying the flesh that was showing. "Does it still hurt, or is it healed already?"

I'm flushing, he's too close and his hands are really warm. "I-it's... Fine now, I think. It's just sore."

He lets go of me and sighs, "So you can't go home." I droop.

I'm a Living Ghost.

I'm living a half-life with a half dead body.

I'm evil.

I slowly start to curl into myself.

My parents hate me, humans aren't my people anymore... I should be dead. "Hey, stop that." He grasps my ankle and I realize I've floated upwards again. He pulls me slowly down and his hands cup my hips to push me down to ground level. He always seemed taller because he floated everywhere, but he slouches when he does that anyway, so he's basically always towering over the girls, and just a little shorter than the guys. Since I'm taller than most of the girls, I'm closer to his height than Paulina but still a half head shorter than him. I suddenly feel very small, and with his hands on my hips, that are much larger than mine, I feel very feminine. I guess that's why girls like him so much at school. I feel like I'm small and vulnerable and need to be protected, but that's how girls always feel right? I've never allowed myself a full range of emotions, to stay scarier than everybody else. I realize I must have been emitting a Fear Aura the whole time. I'm going through ghost puberty though, so I'm probably going to be emotional for a while, what with everything horrible that's happened so far, I think it can only get worse. "If your emotions are out of control, your powers are going to be too. Once you get a handle on them, it won't affect them anymore, but right now you need to stay calm. You're always calm, just remember what you usually do," He lifts a hand to brush my fringe out of my face and rub a few pieces of hair between his fingers. "Your hair turned blonde and you got paler, so I didn't recognize you."

"So if I can't go home... Are there... I don't know, ghost shelters or something?" I wrap my arms around my chest and flinch.

"What's the matter?" He tilts his head, his spiked fringe of hair that somehow defies gravity shifting with him.

"They um... Wrapped me up really tight, and it hurts." I grimace and unwrap my arms, trying to keep my arms still as I clench my hands around my Fang Sheath again.

"I can take you to my house, my mom could probably help you better than I can." He reaches out a hand, just offering it, not shoving it at me. "If you want, we can walk... But if you're in pain, we can fly faster."

He's lightly glowing from exerting his power, his eyes eerie and unsettling in their beauty.

I stare at his hand for a long moment. He'd touched me, but now I'd be willingly touching him. A Living Ghost.


End file.
